New Trends in Music Videos

For so long, K-pop MVs have consisted of pretty boy/girl group members populating a universe which seem to consist of only them, and where the only activity that goes on in there is dancing and looking good. After our endless grumbles about this, and coining and overused term for it (the Box), K-pop Music Video makers have finally heard us out, and are now trying harder to bring something more unique to their Music Videos.

But to they really work? Here are a few trends observed in Music Videos/Performances recently, and a take on them.

The Mythical Legend Theme

As seen in: EXO’s “Mama”, A-Jax’s “One 4 U” and most BAP videos. Come to think of it, make that most debuts.

These days, it is not enough to just be decent in singing and dancing to make a mark. Debut concepts these days are more noted for the lengths which companies would go to imbue their creations with some superhuman or outer worldly powers of sort.

Examples include VIXX with a song named “Superhero” and a MV set that could pass off as a space ship interior and A-Jax with “One 4 U”, where they dress as warriors and strut about, vanquishing kings in the process.

Bonus points also have to go to acts such as EXO, for creating an entire genealogical path (The tree of life and EXO planet anybody?!), as well as B.A.P with the whole alien concept as well as the mutated bunny known as a Matoki.

And lest you thought the whole thing was mutually exclusive to boy bands, we have AOA, which really played up the “A for Angels” angle with the music video showing the girls literally descending from the sky with an angelic glow. Talk about subtle there.

While it must be admitted that most of us think of idols as being an extension of perfection (in some ways), so it works for the companies to play up such desirable and dominating traits to attract fans. Also, in some ways such over the top concepts also help draw attention in what could be called an overly crowded K-pop arena, where many an act gets made (or broken) on the strength of their debut.

However, on the flipside, what one considers a bold debut, could be to others a pompous and cocky rookie. Also, there is the argument that groups that fail to live up to the bold promises always disappoint far harder than groups that promise a bit lesser, thus setting themselves up for more criticism. A good example could be AOA’s debut, which could be best described as slightly underwhelming.

And after all the talk around circles are after all, human, surely it would make more sense to understate those impossible (albeit awesome) traits?

While I admit to also enjoying some of the bold, God-like Music Videos, for the ideas and especially if the acts can pull it off, part of me also finds it a bit overboard at times. The jury is still out on this one.

Given how animals at in popular culture seem to be extensions of human characteristics, it was only natural that sooner or later they would be used as metaphors in music videos.

A pretty common example would be big black dogs restrained only by leashes, used to signify menace (in the case of Shinhwa) or to show dominance and strength by an unexpected party (in the case of Baek Ji-young’s).

In fact, Good Boy is a very interesting example, where it is the female who plays a dominating role in the music video, and so having her lead out the dogs is a very interesting emphasis on the female being the one who rules.

And on the other extreme, you have SNSD-TTS, where Tiffany holds a poodle in her arms while getting her hair done. That same poodle also makes an appearance at various points of the video, playing up the feminine nature of the music video as much as the pink and light blue fashions do.

A left field use of animals could be seen in 4Minute’s “Volume Up,” where the girls performed with snakes around them, ostensibly as a metaphor for online criticisms and the half truths surrounding them in real life. While that did call for a bit more observation during video-watching, it was certainly an interesting diversion.

Personally, I am okay with the animals as long as the animals were treated fairly in the filming process, and their inclusion helped to tell the story.

However, the award for most awkward use of animal in K-pop has got to go to 2NE1 for their Inkigayo stage. Watching it, the only thing that would probably come to one mind was how it would really suck to be the parrot.

The Let’s Shoot in Some Exotic Locale Plan

As seen in: Beast’s “Beautiful Night,” Sistar’s “Alone” and “Loving U.” Big Bang too, for their love of New York in “Blue” and “Bad Boy.”

Nothing says international and sophisticated than a shot of your bias walking down the street of some foreign land. Besides, overseas shoots also serve as a nice way for any entertainment company to send their artistes out for a holiday (or at least see another country for a while), and it lends credence to the fact good money was spent on the concept.

Except that many a times, the exotic locale rarely figured in the plot. How many of us watched SIStar’s “Alone” with anticipation upon hearing it would be shot in Las Vegas, only to find that the Las Vegas bits largely consisted of what could have been stock footage of the glitzy night lights, with a bit of the girls walking down the streets, and the rest of it shot in a night club/studio set?

Or come to think of it Beast’s “Beautiful Night”, which distilled New York down to two completely unrelated things – Low Rider cars and Odd Fashions. Not helping the cause was how the models for a dance scene were sourced – A Craigslist, complete with the (perhaps discriminatory) line “Caucasian Actresses/Models”. Seriously, all of the three things (maybe not the cars) could have been sourced just as easily in Korea.

Granted, overseas shoots have been done nicely, like SIStar’s “Loving U”, which played up Hawaii’s appeal while at the same time looking like a really fun shoot, but for the most part most MVs tend to just use the overseas locale as a selling point, and not much else.

Until MVs actually make the exotic locale seriously matter/be relevant in the plot, it would just serve as something that ramps up the production budget while not doing a lot.

The Let’s Play up The Bitter, Jilted Lover Memes

As seen in: Infinite’s “The Chaser” and MBLAQ’s “This is War”

Given how many K-pop MV viewers do not necessarily speak the language, or have a rather weak grasp of it, it is hard to think of a better way to get the point of the song across than with literal hints in the music videos.

Among some of the more enjoyable themes to watch out are the ones on lovers spurned, simply because of how creative directors can get. I mean how do you tell a story of spurned loves, or rivalries, without resorting to the overt clichés or blatant guy vs guy fighting?

Two examples I found rather interesting were MBLAQ’s “This Is War” and Infinite’s “The Chaser”. The MBLAQ one was probably more liberal in its theme of two men fighting over one woman, with one of them (literally) moving out of the relationship in spectacular fashion. While some might find the whole thing excessive and a bit ridiculous, at least there was an attempt to interpret the lyrics through the MV.

A far more evolved example was Infinite’s “The Chaser”, which touched on a lover, though being forced out of a relationship, promises to return and try again. The video certainly did play up the metaphors of the jilted one trying too hard to get back into the relationships.

For starters, there was the scene where two members ride on motorbikes and smashing the fluorescent lights. Just think of the sounds made from the lights breaking, which really sends a “warning signal” of sorts to the lovers they are going after.

And there is the scene where Sung-gyu walks away from a wrecked car, which in previous scenes was shown to have contained Myung-soo, leading to some conjectures that it could have been a parallel to show love rivals trying to harm each other for an advantage.

Still, I do enjoy such metaphors, partly for how they do advance the plot, and also for how directors attempt creativity amidst the need to stick to censorship rules.

So Seoulmates, what other new MV trends have you observed, and which ones have you liked or disliked?

I think it’s hard to believe that, of all of the rookie debuts this year that focused on a fantastical element, AOA is the one you think stands out as failing and calling negative attention to themselves. While they weren’t mind blowing, you mentioned other rookie acts that were much more underwhelming, and AOA has not garnered harsh criticism for their use of their fantastical theme. From what I’ve seen, it’s not the theme that makes people have harsh criticisms toward a rookie, but rather their attitude. Most rookies that I’ve seen be criticized are the ones that talk too highly of themselves, which can be done magical theme or no (like what YG did to those poor girls calling by calling them the next 2NE1… maybe he’ll luck out and people will forget about that before those girls actually debut).

Riley

I disagree. I think that AOA’s attempt at using “fantasy” was a failure. It was really irrelevant and lackluster. Especially when considering the song, nothing fit.

haiitsvi

I didn’t like it at first, but I’m warming up to the song. However, neither the song nor choreo is “angelic.”

Riley

I agree. I like the song (if you exclude the first minute) but the video and choreo are lackluster and scattered, which is unfortunate since I actually like the song. (Also why are there so many? At least three of the members are irrelevant.)

haiitsvi

Exactly! I was really turned off by that annoying saxophone riff and the girl’s rapping/singing at the beginning and after watching some performances I could pick out a handful of talented singers. I just wish they stuck with just a band concept. It makes me believe that girls can’t be taken seriously as musicians in Korea. They have to either be cute or sexy and can’t just be appreciated for pure talent.

Riley

I don’t really mind the saxophone riff, but that rapping/singing thing REALLY turned me off. It was like aegyo and rapping, but it was terrible. Aegyo+rapping has worked before so that was a failure to me. And it had no connection to the rest of the song, which was fun and upbeat. Also that “gah” is something I still really REALLY can’t get over.

I agree. They should have definitely stuck with the band concept and kept the members only in the band. I can only recall the ones in the band anyways. I would have taken them into much more consideration if they had. But now I can’t help but think of the excess of members. What are they for??

mybiasbeatsyourbias

The fantasy theme I don’t mind much myself. Its like box MVs except just with some type interaction or a supernatrual feel added into it. The exotic location shot I question how kpop sees the western world. I notice a large sum do not show the diversity of people who populate these worlds and the international fandom of kpop. Its becoming more disturbing to watch these mvs and see how Koreans view the west. It is not a pleasent feel for kpop fans who are non-white. That is a more deeper conversation from observation. Save that for another day.
The. Bitter jilted love memes is just Korean drama to me without being a TV show. I often time find myself confuse since the plots are not well develop. Nor does it reflect well on the context of the song. I’m very picky and koreans are to much into drama for their own good. Other than that I like the article.
I would like to also point out T-ara “day by day” or Wonder Girl’s “Like Money” having a bit of a sci fi theme to them. It fits fantasy but its a little more center. At least “Day By Day” was trying to be.

I loved the whole Tron/Android-like theme with Like Money. Also felt it perfectly suited the autotune of the song.

T-ara was a bit more of fantasy. Actually not really, it was just one of those stories that looked convoluted, but actually was just a strightforward story told in a round-about way.

mybiasbeatsyourbias

I like the Wonder Girls theme of transhumanist andriods. But the T-ara day by day seem like of a much more darker concept. Using post apocalyptic theme. Newbie member dani having telepathic powers that can be use as weapon. Its really cheesy but beats other mvs.

That parrot was biting CL’s ear in hopes of actually staying on her shoulder. That’s because CL was like shaking off the parrot with her swag and jerky shoulder movements.

A trend I saw was the use of flashmobs, or just mobs in general. Psy seems to like utilizing lots of people and the WG also based their entire video around it. Even B2ST’s “Beautiful Night” had a mini-mob in the alley.

Gaya_SB

They could have at least put the parrot on CL’s other shoulder.

YourYG Bias

Agreed, then it could’ve grabbed on to the bandana instead. Still, it was weird when I first saw it.

mybiasbeatsyourbias

The parrot was scared and so was CL. These girls aren’t license zoo keepers and personally it didn’t enhance the song perferomance. The parrrot was a distasteful distraction. I don’t like it when people use animals this way. Not only is it dangerous for the animal but also for that person who lack the experience handling an animal like that. She is very lucky that parrot didn’t bit her ear off.

moua23

Lol I never really noticed these trends until you pointed it out, I guess come to think of it, so true.

moua23

Lol I never really noticed these trends until you pointed it out, I guess come to think of it, so true.

happy_slip

Holy shit, I thought I was looking at f(x)’s Lachata set at first…then I realized it was from AOA’s music video lol.

I’m gonna be honest and say that I skipped the ones that had a sci-fi/supernatural themes in their music videos — the closest video that I checked out was Day by Day (w/c was a bit underwhelming btw, except for the beautiful cinematography). Strange, considering I do like those genres a lot.

Oh God, the parrot LOL. I was surprised when I saw it, liked it after watching the whole performance for the first time…looking back though, I wished they focused more on the lotus interpretation that Dara hinted they would do but didn’t happen.

I loved Shinhwa’s Venus video concept.Back then i was only staring and had no idea that it was about the story of a vampire thing.I thought it was about a weird nightmare.hahaha but i really enjoyed it,especially the part where Junjin is almoust bite by the furious dog.
And the Chaser. Infinite’s video concept,to tell the truth i had no idea what the video was about..yeah it starts with the car accident and the member that walks cool in the rain and that part where some smashes those lights,the rest..just dancing parts…so i my opinion the video started with a nice story but it ended more into dance scenes and nothing much.